On the morning of September 11, 2001, Adam Putnam was a 26-year-old freshman congressman at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, greeting President George W. Bush during what was supposed to be a routine education visit. When White House Chief of Staff Andy Card delivered the news of the first strike on the World Trade Center, the visit collapsed into a national emergency, and Putnam found himself swept into the president’s motorcade as the Secret Service mobilized.
Cleared to fly aboard Air Force One, Putnam and fellow Florida Rep. Dan Miller soon learned there was a threat against the aircraft itself. Passengers were ordered to power down their phones to avoid tracking. A return to Washington was aborted after the Pentagon was struck, and a planned diversion to Camp David was scrapped after Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. The plane ultimately landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where President Bush briefed both lawmakers before they continued back to a transformed capital, one with smoke still visible at the Pentagon and heavy security around Capitol Hill.
For those of us on the Suncoast, the story carries a hometown thread: one of the most consequential days in American history began at one of our schools. Twenty-five years on, Putnam’s account offers something the news footage never could, a firsthand view from inside the motorcade and aboard the presidential aircraft as decisions were made in real time. Where were you, and what do you remember most about the way our community responded that week? Sound off in the comments.
